To Win
by Child-of-the-Dawn
Summary: After 'Doomsday'. The Doctor faces the Black Guardian, and has a few things to say. Ref to The Armageddon Factor.


Title: To Win

Rating: mostly pg, but angsty and strong (a bit of 13 for a few curses XD)/ K+

* * *

**"you shall die for this..i shall destroy you for this. **

**I shall disperse every particle of your existence to the **

**farthest reaches of the universe!"**

**-The Black Guardian, "The Armageddon Factor"**

The Fourth Doctor felt a chill run through him at the fading words of the Black Guardian even though he had his coat and scarf on and Romana close by.

Usually the words of the megalomaniac-of-the-day were easy to throw off, despite the venom in which they were normally spoken/spat/hissed. But something in the words (which, after all, had power—he shuddered to think of an encounter with any race who knew that power.) made him pause.

He blinked, and in his vision Romana became a blonde with beautiful brown eyes. The rest of her was obscured, but he felt so full of joy at her presence, a feeling he hadn't known for hundreds of years.She was bright light and laugher and joy, and she kissed him softly on the lips, giggling and sticking her tongue out through her pink mouth. But try as he did to focus on her, she stayed a fuzzy memory in his vision.

"**I shall destroy you for this!"**

And then she faded in a burst of swirling white, and his heart sank. He almost called out to her, but when the vision faded he was looking at Romana again. And according to one of his extra senses, his vision had lasted a mere millisecond. She gave him a look, but said nothing, much to his relief.

The Doctor tried to shake off the dream girl and the Black Guardian's words. It was, he told himself logically, the rage of a mad god, nothing more.

* * *

The Doctor stood overlooking the field where once he'd stood at odds with the Black Guardian. The base where the Tardis had parked all those years ago was no more. Seventeen hundred years had passed since Atrios had it's war with Zeos's war machine. Now it was a lush, wild land with one small kingdom growing steading in the lush foliage.

He remembered the vision, his beautiful Rose kissing him in a moment he had twice—once in that vision before they met and another as it had truly happened, outside the Tescos near the Powell Estates on some random visit to her mother. When he saw the movement, he connected her with his dream girl and dove for it, taking all the passion her kiss in his mind had stirred up in him then into that moment, all the while painfully aware of what came next.

He blinked, a shadow coming in the side of his vision and he turned. Rage boiled within him at the black robes of the dark Guardian.

"You son of a bitch!" The Doctor growled," You let me see that vision! You made sure I'd know I'd lose her!"

The Black Guardian grinned at him, eyes burning like dark fires in his shimmering face. He said nothing, just walked around him in a half circle, his silence making him all the more sinister.

"I did. You all lose in the end, all of you. And even a Goddess lies in my domain."

"You--"

"Save your breath, Time Lord. The Void is mine, and it shall never bend to allow her access. She's trying you know. Every alien race she befriends gives her a little help, but I'm always there to stop her. I always will be. Soon the Goddess will lose hope."

"You're wrong" The Doctor said defiantly, leveling his eyes at the being.

"I told you I'd destroy you, scatter you. And I have. You thought I meant you as a man, but no...oh no I meant you and your Goddess. Defeated, destroyed."

"No. If shes still trying so will I!"

"You'll fail!!"

"Who.cares. I love her, so who cares? And as for what you pulled with that vision, you'll be the one scattered. I don't care how all powerful you are! You and your prophecy and certainty can go and die! Cuz she's never giving up, and I'm sick of playing your game. Good, semi-good, sorta-grey, I'm done with it! I'm dead, I'm already dead, so you LOSE!" The Doctored snarled at him, his face an inch from the force of Darkness.

"You twisted Rani, you turned Koschei into a madman, you stole Susan and my son and left my planet a memory through the Daleks.

But Ace destroyed a Dalek with a baseball bat, Adric died a hero who is remembered on two planets, Jack found the beauty in a curse, Susan had a life and loved. All of them, all the people who traveled with me have fought back and won." He grinned the dark, burning grin of the Oncoming Storm that he was.

" You think you win. But theres a White Guardian too. And he's behind every soul who has the courage to accept him. Rose wins. Ace wins. All the people who love win. And they'll win until theres so many little dots of light in you that you can't be anything but a canvas for them to paint over."

The Doctor step back, eyes alight, and surveyed the Black Guardian with pity.

"You killed me, but you'll never win. She brings me back, every time. You can't fight her."

* * *

A/N: Kinda went biblical there, didnt I? I had no idea where this was going, and to be honest it wrote itself. I hope you get the message. I see the Doctor as needing to face the Black Guardian to get that boost he needs to keep going.


End file.
